More little repairs that needed finishing up

As you saw from an earlier post, we sprung a leak on a hot water line in the bathroom sink area. It kind of pissed the cat off 'cause it was right over her litter box. I temporarily resolved that by placing a shelf and a cup under the pipe until we had the money to buy the parts for the repairs. Fortunately, I was able to get all of the needed parts at Lowes and was able to save ourselves a trip to Camping World or some other place like that. I used a couple of unions and an elbow, along with a new section of pipe to effect that repair.

Also, we had a brake caliper that got stuck on the Honda Accord. Once I figured out the brake caliper was stuck, it was an easy fix. I got the parts at our local O'Riely autoparts and got it, as well as the new brake pads installed. This also gave me a perfect opportunity to change out the brake fluid in all of the brake lines.

Lastly, I had to replace the screen material one more time on the front door of the motor home. Rosie continues to try to do her best at remodeling the motorhome, but we just won't give in to her desires.

Thats all for now. Happy camping! - Eric and Carol -

Good Bye Dr. Nigel

We are so very sad to announce the passing of one of our families greatest dogs, Dr. Nigel. He was a pound puppy that my Mike and Karen adopted from a shelter in the Medford area back in 1998. Our first memory of him was when we went up to Karen and Mikes so that Carol could meet the family for the first time. Nigel bolted out the front door to go for a run. So Eric grabbed his hiking boots, threw them on, but don't bother to lace them (cause that would take time) and run after him in the snow covered streets, up one street and down the other. Fortunately for us, we caught him while going number 2 on someones lawn. Yes, the neighbor yelled at us, but we got our beloved Nigel back, for 14 wonderful years. He had a wonderful home with Karen and Mike and he will always be with all who knew him, at least in sprit, for a long time to come. He traveled the nation in Karen and Mikes motorhome, on two cross country trips. He always loved to go for a ride in the Motorhome. We love you Nigel, we always have, and we always will, Rest in peace my friend. We love you!

When ever we go camping, we will always think of you Dr. Nigel

Eric's 50th Birthday

Fifty years ago, Betty Ruth Anderson delivered Eric Lynn Anderson. For so many years I thought of being 50 as being old, but low and behold, here I am, fifty years old. I had a wonderful 50th birthday celebration. It started with a gathering with the family in Amador county at Pine Grove Pizza, one of my favorite Pizza parlors ever! Thank you to Sandy and Bill for the new tool boxes, they are just want the doctor ordered.

On the Wednesday before my birthday, Katie and Russ joined us for dinner at Hooters. I thought that was one of the appropriate places to celebrate my 50th birthday, especially since it was a time with our kids! :-)

The following weekend, we made the trek up to Oregon to enjoy some family time with Karen and Mike. It was a beautiful drive to Ashland on the evening of my Birthday. We had a great dinner at Applebees in Redding on the way to Karen and Mikes. We went on a long desired tour of Dogs for the deaf which my honey set up for me and Karen and Mike to enjoy. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Southern Oregon, make a stop at the Dogs for the Deaf facility. It is wonderful and they do wonderful things for those less fortunate! Later on that Friday, we enjoyed dinner at Omars Restaurant for steak and other tasty stuff.

On Saturday, we went to a Crab feed at the local Elks lodge that Mike is a member of. I was so glad that we also got to spend some much enjoyable time with Mikes brother Chuck and wife Teri at the crab feed as well.

Every part of my 50th birthday has been absolutly wonderful. Thank you to my wife and all of my family members for a wonderful birthday celebration.

Happy camping! - Eric -

A new month and new repairs and thoughts on getting older

The last couple of weeks have been fairly quiet around here. Though we find with my job change that we can’t get out in the Moho as much as we would like to, we know that with time this will change. My supervisor is really happy with my performance and is trying hard to get me a promotion sooner rather than later. So, though I took a pay cut to get this job, it is only a temporary situation, if all goes well.

As I get’s older, I find myself more reflective on my life over the years. I never perceived myself as a super star, a jock, or anyone that was smarter than a lot of other people. I’ve just always tried to work hard, do what’s right and take care of my family. I find myself feeling so lucky to have the family that I do in my life, I have the most wonderful wife in the whole wide world, and a daughter (though my step daughter) who has turned out to be such a wonderful young lady. Hopefully, I had some small part in that. I'm looking forward to the next two weekends, not so much because each weekend will have some part of celebrating my 50th birthday, but because I will get to spend time with my family members who are so important too me. I will get to see a number of Carols family this weekend, and I will get to see my own sister and her husband Mike, next weekend. For all these wonderful family members, I am truly blessed.

Also this weekend, we are going to get the oil changed on the Moho. The first time since we have bought it. She's over due, but hopefully, she won't hold too much of a grudge.

There have also been a couple more repairs that we have had to make to the rig. Both of them have to do with water, hmmm, are you sensing a theme here? One of them is a water leak from under the sink in the bathroom. It's on the hot water side. I'm thinking at one time, there was too much pressure to the lines and she finally gave up the ghost. Well, we will be off to Camping world this weekend to get the Oil Change and we should be able to pick up the parts for this repair. In the short term, you can see I attached a shelf and a cup, to catch the drips until we can effect the repair.

The second one was a little harder to diagnose. It turns out a gasket on the mounting bracket of the air conditioner failed. And, when it rained, the water came in through the bolt holes. After a little liquid gasket material, we should be good to go.

Oh yes, one last thing... Carol and I are now doing volunteer work at a local Chako organization here in Sacramento. We are helping to socialize Pit Bulls at the local animal shelter so that they will be adopted. Wish us luck.

Take care and Happy camping!

Eric (and Carol)

Out with the old, in with the new!!!

Hi there everyone,

Well, 2012 looks to be as busy as any prior year and as we enter into our fourth year, living in an RV, we just could not be happier. Although, it is not as if there aren't a few bumps along the way. Shortly after our return from Ashland for the New Years celebration, I decided to change out the faucet on the shower, which was one of the gifts that Carol asked Santa clause for this holiday season. When we bought the Moho, the shower faucet was a gold plated plastic affair that had lost its sheen, long before we bought the motor home. We both love our new faucet, it looks so much better and works really swift too!

Of course, shortly there after, the water heater decided it wanted some attention. It decided that it didn't want to heat water using the electric heating element any more. The one draw back is that we didn't have a propane to run the water heater either, so we had to take the motor home out to get propane and up to Camping World to get the water heater looked at. It turned out to be that the thermostat had failed on the 110 volt side. Fifteen minutes and $188 dollars later, we were good to go. Though Eric suffered a little bit from sticker shock, he learned a lot about water heaters in this little adventure and knows how to diagnose problems like this in the future.

Also last week, Carol and the entire unit she works in, received award for exceptional effort for a project that they worked on at work. It is so wonderful that Carol, and everyone in her unit, got recognized for their hard work that they put in. It's well known that Carol works her backside off at CAL-FIRE, but it is nice to know that she gets recognized for her efforts as well.

Well, we are both itching to head out in the RV, so hopefully in the next day or so, we will be ready to hit the open road on some sort of interesting, all be it brief adventure.

Stay tuned!

Happy camping! - Eric and Carol -

Happy 2012!!!!

Hi there everyone,

Happy new years! We hope you all had a safe and wonderful New Years Holiday! We had a great trip up to Ashland Oregon to see the Wraight family. It was extra special 'cause Kris and crew were here to visit for the holidays from the east coast! It was so wonderful to see them!

Though the weekend was short, we got to enjoy some great food and company together. We took Rosie and Lily with us and Roxy saw in the new year visiting with Katie and Russ. Rosie continues to make progress, though be it in small steps, towards getting use to other people. After a while, she was willing to greet Mikes brother Chuck and his wife Terry with a sniff and a lick. She is really trying so hard. We even think Rosie might have a new love interest. She seems to really get a long well with Sir Guinness of Mayhem. They became fast buddies and played tug a lot while we were in Ashland for our visit.

We find that when on the road, Rosie also likes to stick her head out the window of the car while we are traveling down the road and sniff the air. I don't know about for you, but we don't know how she does it as we travel down the road at 65 miles an hour, but she seems to love to do it, at least for a couple minutes at a time.

We hope that 2012 is a wonderful year for all of our friends and family out there.

Happy camping! - Eric and Carol -

This is how we roll

Hi there everyone,

When you get a chance, check out this video for the Villalobos Rescue Center. IT ROCKS!